1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to analysis of geological data and more particularly to identification of a bypassed portion of an already exploited region.
2. Description of the Related Art
In oil and gas production operations, it is important to produce as much as possible of the available resources from each drilling operation. In a given well field, it can be quite common that recoverable amounts of hydrocarbon are bypassed during production. On initial drilling of a particular formation, oil may be produced by primary production methods that take advantage of pre-existing pressure in the formation. Once primary production has been completed, there is often still a high degree of oil saturation. Secondary recovery approaches are then used to recover more oil from the formation. Fluid injection is one approach that has been used to promote flow of hydrocarbons from remote areas of the field to a production well. In fluid injection, water is pumped into certain wells, pressurizing the reservoir and causing additional production from the production wells. Even where fluid injection is used, there can be regions of the field that remain bypassed that may include significant hydrocarbon resources.
In this regard, reservoir connectivity has been studied, to provide an understanding of what effects should be expected when injecting fluid at a particular point within the formation. In conjunction with permeability models, connectivity models can be used to model fluid flow through the formation, providing insight on where to perform fluid injection or where to drill additional production wells, for example.